The Inspiration-o-meter
« previous post | next post »
Molly Fitzpatrick, "Know. Here. More. The top 100 words used in 2015 commencement speeches are oddly inspiring, even out of context", Fusion 5/21/2015:
Is there a formula for inspiration? If so it involves these words: know, here, more, life. They top the list of the 100 most common words used in commencement speeches this year.
We analyzed the transcripts of 30 high-profile commencement addresses delivered this spring. […]
Commencement speakers talk more about the students they’re addressing than themselves, but only barely. We found that the second-person pronouns “you,” “your,” and “yours” were used just 4.7% more than the first-person pronouns “I,” “me,” “my,” and “mine.” […]
Here are the top 100 words in order, ranked by the number of times they were used across all 30 speeches. Prepare your graduation ceremony bingo cards accordingly:
[…truncated for readability…]
For about half of their 30 speeches, the links provided just went to youtube or other video recordings. With some additional web searches, I was able to find transcripts (or scripts "as prepared for delivery") for a total of 21 of the 30 speeches:
Madeleine Albright, Alan Alda, Jill Biden, Joe Biden, Charles Bolden, Ken Burns, George Bush, Tim Cook, Katie Couric, Blase Cupich, Kenneth Feinberg, Matt McConaughey, Bill Nye, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Colin Powell, Samantha Power, Jorge Ramos, Mitt Romney, Evan Spiegel, Meredith Viera
So for this morning's Breakfast Experiment™, I thought I'd look at some individual differences.
First, that pronoun thing. My sample was a bit more first-person-singular oriented overall — the totals were
you|your|yours 1800
I|me|my|mine 1740
for a proportional difference of 1800/1740 = 1.0345, or about 3.5%.
But there were big individual differences. Here are the 21 speeches sorted (in descending order) by the ratio of first person singular pronouns to second person pronouns:
NAME NWords N1PS N2P 1PS% 2P% 2P/1SP Kenneth Feinberg 1409 27 67 1.92 4.76 2.48 Evan Spiegel 1250 28 54 2.24 4.32 1.93 Alan Alda 2195 54 102 2.46 4.65 1.89 Barack Obama 3661 67 114 1.83 3.11 1.70 George Bush 1701 56 86 3.29 5.06 1.54 Blase Cupich 2323 51 78 2.20 3.36 1.53 Jorge Ramos 1364 43 52 3.15 3.81 1.21 Samantha Power 4241 79 94 1.86 2.22 1.19 Bill Nye 2654 51 60 1.92 2.26 1.18 Jill Biden 1736 53 61 3.05 3.51 1.15 Mitt Romney 2617 66 74 2.52 2.83 1.12 Katie Couric 4183 120 132 2.87 3.16 1.10 Madeleine Albright 2324 63 69 2.71 2.96 1.10 Michelle Obama 3600 107 111 2.97 3.08 1.04 Colin Powell 1843 80 71 4.34 3.85 0.89 Joe Biden 4760 194 162 4.08 3.40 0.84 Ken Burns 2601 38 30 1.46 1.15 0.79 Matt McConaughey 5976 245 181 4.10 3.03 0.74 Tim Cook 2183 84 55 3.85 2.52 0.65 Meredith Viera 2774 140 91 5.05 3.28 0.65 Charles Bolden 1723 94 56 5.46 3.25 0.60
What about those inspirational words? Again, big differences. Here's know:
NAME NWords N Per1000 Alan Alda 2195 18 8.20 Jorge Ramos 1364 8 5.87 Joe Biden 4760 26 5.46 Jill Biden 1736 8 4.61 George Bush 1701 6 3.53 Meredith Viera 2774 9 3.24 Matt McConaughey 5976 19 3.18 Katie Couric 4183 11 2.63 Evan Spiegel 1250 3 2.40 Tim Cook 2183 5 2.29 Bill Nye 2654 6 2.26 Michelle Obama 3600 8 2.22 Mitt Romney 2617 5 1.91 Barack Obama 3661 7 1.91 Charles Bolden 1723 3 1.74 Blase Cupich 2323 4 1.72 Samantha Power 4241 7 1.65 Colin Powell 1843 3 1.63 Madeleine Albright 2324 3 1.29 Ken Burns 2601 2 0.77 Kenneth Feinberg 1409 1 0.71
Here's here:
NAME NWords N Per1000 Barack Obama 3661 23 6.28 Charles Bolden 1723 9 5.22 Michelle Obama 3600 15 4.17 Jill Biden 1736 7 4.03 Meredith Viera 2774 11 3.97 George Bush 1701 6 3.53 Joe Biden 4760 16 3.36 Madeleine Albright 2324 7 3.01 Jorge Ramos 1364 4 2.93 Kenneth Feinberg 1409 4 2.84 Bill Nye 2654 7 2.64 Samantha Power 4241 10 2.36 Ken Burns 2601 6 2.31 Tim Cook 2183 5 2.29 Blase Cupich 2323 5 2.15 Colin Powell 1843 3 1.63 Katie Couric 4183 6 1.43 Alan Alda 2195 3 1.37 Mitt Romney 2617 3 1.15 Matt McConaughey 5976 5 0.84 Evan Spiegel 1250 1 0.80
But this is getting tiresome. Let's ask, instead, about the overall rate of usage of all 100 "inspirational" words — this defines a sort of Inspiration-o-meter. How does everybody score?
NAME NWords NI-Words %I-Words Barack Obama 3661 616 16.83% Alan Alda 2195 359 16.36% Jill Biden 1736 279 16.07% Colin Powell 1843 267 14.49% Michelle Obama 3600 505 14.03% Tim Cook 2183 290 13.28% Meredith Viera 2774 368 13.27% Charles Bolden 1723 228 13.23% Kenneth Feinberg 1409 182 12.92% Joe Biden 4760 615 12.92% Matt McConaughey 5976 759 12.70% George Bush 1701 216 12.70% Jorge Ramos 1364 172 12.61% Bill Nye 2654 326 12.28% Katie Couric 4183 498 11.91% Evan Spiegel 1250 147 11.76% Madeleine Albright 2324 261 11.23% Samantha Power 4241 472 11.13% Mitt Romney 2617 289 11.04% Blase Cupich 2323 246 10.59% Ken Burns 2601 271 10.42%
Obama('s speechwriter) wins! I'm not sure whether that's something for the president's team to be proud of or ashamed of.
(In fact we should really change the list of Top-whatever I-Words to reflect not just the overall rates in graduation speeches, but rates in graduation speeches compared to rates in other texts. But that's an experiment for another breakfast…)
Ginger Yellow said,
May 28, 2015 @ 7:03 am
Is there a formula for inspiration?
Genius – perspiration, isn't it?
[(myl) Curiously, neither genius nor perspiration occurs in the 21 commencement addresses surveyed.]
cs said,
May 28, 2015 @ 8:22 am
On the first chart, should't the last column be 2P/1P? Or are the other columns labeled wrong?
[(myl) Oops. Fixed now.]
Chips Mackinolty said,
May 28, 2015 @ 8:37 am
Commencement addresses? To me they seem like a peculiarly USA artefact, but I get the general idea. Confession? I have been a speechwriter on and off for many years. For politicians, elected and unelected. And for others. Given the nature of such speeches, it is completely unsurprising that the most common words are generally positive in feel, and god forbid that I trawl through the speeches to be certain of this: I would bet the house that they are all of that nature. Positive, affirming and generally uplifting.
So what? My bet would also be that the “you,” “your,” and “yours” were used just slightly more than the first-person pronouns “I,” “me,” “my,” and “mine.” Any half competent speechwriter will write to compare, favourably, the audience with positive information about the speech giver and the audience itself. Getting the audience to identify with the speaker. Guess what? About a 50:50 ratio, which is what this study shows. Hardly rocket science.
I have been watching this debate in LL and elsewhere and regard it as a largely sterile and dreary field of research and polemic, especially as we approach an era where set piece speeches/responses are largely mediated by speechwriters rather than the speakers themselves. So our talent is saying “I,” “me,” “my,” and “mine” too often? Well, we will tone it down and shift the statistics so we look like a far more inclusive speaker.
For the speechwriter (and speaker), it then becomes a nuts and bolts exercise.
It may well be that it is worth researching areas such as race/gender specific language in public speaking as a reflection of changing mores/politics. But don't forget these may be as much artefacts of the speechwriters and market research as the genuine usage of the speech givers.
There are serious limits in linguists' trawling through word frequency lists to add to our understanding of how public life works.
[(myl) I'm not sure what you're arguing against, but I believe that you've misunderstood the discussion that you're reacting against.
The arguments about pronouns didn't start with "linguists' trawling through word frequency lists". Rather, the starting point was political pundits who made unsupported assertions about Barack Obama's allegedly excessive use of first-person singular pronouns. I (and others) have intervened to (1) show that these claims are false, and indeed the opposite of the truth, in that Obama's usage of first singular pronouns is actually on the low side; and (2) that the asserted implications about a relationship between pronoun usage and narcissistic personality characteristics are nonsense in any case.
Also, as it happens, what this "study" shows is not "a 50:50 ratio" between first-singular and second person pronouns, but rather a range of ratios differing by a factor of more than 4, from 2.48/1 to 0.6/1. Presumably this does reflect a range of differences in the speakers' rhetorical styles, though admittedly this should be the start of a discussion, not the end of one.
So in this context, what is your point? Just that you don't like numbers, and can't be bothered to look at the content of a discussion once your hackles have been raised by encountering some?]
Ralph Hickok said,
May 28, 2015 @ 11:25 am
They didn't include De Niro's speech, which seems to have been the most widely reported.
Doreen said,
May 28, 2015 @ 11:31 am
Wait, so the, a/an, of and the like aren't words, according to this journalist?
[(myl) There's no explanation of the method that they used. Clearly some set of "stop words" must have been eliminated. It's possible that some kind of stemming was done, but probably not, since there are some inflected forms in the list. This lack is irresponsible, in my opinion, even in a mass-media article. ]
shubert said,
May 28, 2015 @ 2:01 pm
the, a/an, of are "choice less" words while would, don't… are inclinable, opposing to wouldn't, do. I may be wrong on this.
J. W. Brewer said,
May 28, 2015 @ 3:18 pm
It's harder to do when you have to guess at the words they thought were so common as not to be worth including, but it would be useful to do the follow-up project noted above of comparison to a (suitably adjusted) list of common words outside the specific genre/context. I note just as a first-glance eyeball comparison that the seven most common nouns on the list linked above (at least granted the dodgy assumption that "people" is a form of the lemma "person") are also all on the top ten in the list of most common nouns here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_common_words_in_English#Nouns. Indeed, it is probably not hard by looking as such ordinary word frequency lists (or a Swadesh list or something similar) to find some sort of profound and/or "inspirational" subtext if you put yourself in the right frame of mind . . .
Rubrick said,
May 28, 2015 @ 6:06 pm
People there, like here, don't know life. No more! Get up, world! Make time today — now!
maidhc said,
May 28, 2015 @ 7:10 pm
The hidden motivation behind commencement speeches is to get the graduates to feel so positive toward their alma mater that they sign up for the alumni association, which will make it easier for the university to solicit donations from them.
Alan Palmer said,
May 29, 2015 @ 6:16 am
Ah! After reading through this post and its comments I've realised I'd been misunderstanding the meaning of 'commencement speeches'. I had assumed that they were held at the commencement of a student's college life, rather than at the end, on graduation.
shubert said,
May 29, 2015 @ 6:55 am
commencement
1.a beginning or start:
2.NORTH AMERICAN
a ceremony in which degrees or diplomas are conferred on graduating students: synonyms: graduation
Graeme said,
June 2, 2015 @ 4:39 am
Yes, Shubert. What for the rest of the world is an ending, a vale-dictory, the US labels a new beginning.
Mind you the 'rah rah, take a bow, such hard work, such lifelong friendships forged, now go forth the world is your oyster' speech on collecting testamurs seems mind-numbingly universal.